A real loss. Even if the movie itself sucked, Falk was always worth watching. My favorite performance of his remains his womens-wrestling manager in 1981's wonderfully entertaining ...All the Marbles, which was directed by Robert Aldrich, who was also responsible for another superlative sports comedy, 1973's The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds. And here's the trailer for Marbles...

And he was obviously amazing as Columbo. The programme itself occasionally whiffs of dated cheese, but he gives a genuinely brilliant performance in it._________________"We hate the French! We fight wars against the French! Did all those men die in vain on the fields of Agincourt? Was the man who burned Joan of Arc just wasting good matches?"

Even in flat-out calamities like Big Trouble and The Cheap Detective he miraculously managed to rise above the material._________________"Joe the Plumber -- you can quote me -- is a dumbass." -- Meghan McCain